Here are some ideas for your holiday breakfast and lunch, along with a sweet way to cool off.
Vegan hot dogs
Your Labor Day plans might involve feeding someone who has moved to a plant-based diet, for whom the usual burgers and hot dogs on the grill just won’t cut it. Try Updogs from Upton’s Naturals. They’re not soy-based, but instead are made primarily from seitan, which gives them their meat-like texture. Then, they’re flavored with mustard seed and onion powder, among other seasonings, which gives them a spicy flavor that we liked best with sweeter toppings, such as ketchup and pickle relish. You should not boil these hot dogs. Cook them on the grill, or in a skillet until they’re lightly charred. The algae-based coating (sounds strange, but, trust us, it’s delicious) gives them the “snap” you’re looking for in a good hot dog.
$5.99 per 10-ounce package of four hot dogs. Available at Whole Foods Market, the Fresh Market and Amazon. uptonsnaturals.com/products/updog
Credit: Antony Boshier
Credit: Antony Boshier
Biscuit mix, blackberry preserves
No matter where you’re spending Labor Day, you can transport yourself to Nashville if you have the Loveless Cafe’s biscuit mix and blackberry preserves on hand. When you sit down to a meal at the famous restaurant, you’re greeted with a plate of biscuits with blackberry, peach and strawberry preserves. The blackberry is our favorite, for its rich, smoky flavor. Now, we can enjoy those biscuits wherever we have access to a bowl and an oven. The mix comes with tips that will help you reproduce the melt-in-your-mouth fluffy biscuits that are a big reason people travel from all over to eat at the cafe. The 2-pound bag will make up to four dozen biscuits (there are directions for making a dozen at a time). All you add is buttermilk. The preserves are made with just blackberries and cane sugar. The cafe also sells its waffle mix, fried chicken breading, stone ground grits and much more. You can eat the Loveless’ food all week without setting foot in Tennessee.
$7 per 2-pound package of biscuit mix. $12 per 16-ounce jar of preserves. Available at store.lovelesscafe.com/collections/holiday-gifts.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
FatBoy premium ice cream
Can it be a summer holiday if you’re not serving ice cream? We don’t think so. Let us introduce you to FatBoy premium ice cream. It comes from Casper’s Ice Cream, a Utah-based company founded in 1925. That’s when Casper Merrill started selling FatBoy ice cream sandwiches, so named because they were much larger than the usual ice cream treats. We found five flavors of FatBoy ice cream at our local Kroger: Madagascar vanilla, cookie mint chip, marshmallow peanut butter overload, churro and white raspberry truffle. Our favorite was the cookie mint chip, which had just the kind of refreshing flavor you want when you’re looking to cool off during summer’s last holiday.
$5.49 per 30-ounce carton. Available at Kroger. fatboyicecream.com
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